World War I gamers held their own ceasefire on 100-year anniversary

Gamers playing "Battlefield 1," a game set in World War 1, stopped shooting to participate in a ceasefire during an online match at 11 a.m. Canberra time to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, which marks the end of the first World War.

The ceasefire in the game took place on the same day and same time that the annual World War 1 commemoration typically occurs around the globe: On November 11 at 11 a.m.

The player who helped arrange the ceasefire posted a short video of the event on Reddit, but it's hard to tell from the video everyone actually stopped shooting. It looks like some players either didn't hear about the planned ceasefire at the specified time or they ignored the effort altogether. The game's background audio and effects, like loud explosions and artillery from battleships were also still ongoing, which diminished the silence. There's also a player in a plane who performs a strafing run on a bunch on players who are partaking in the ceasefire, which somewhat ruins the moment.

EA/Dice developer Jan David Hassel posted the video on Twitter:

"This is the 100 Year Anniversary of the End of WW1. On the 11th Hour we stopped fighting."

Still, you can tell that some players abided to the ceasefire by the fact that the player recording the video was surrounded by enemy players (with red icons above their heads) and didn't get shot. Any other day and time and the player recording the event would have been killed in seconds when surrounded by so many enemy players.

Ultimately, however, the player recording the event was stabbed and killed. The player doing the stabbing apparently apologized for doing so.

"Battlefield 1" players like myself will know how surprising it is that anyone partook in the event, considering how difficult it is to communicate with others in the game.

The player, known as u/JeremyJenki on Reddit, who helped set up the event and recorded the video posted on Reddit how they did it:

"At the start of the game, me and a couple others started talking about having a ceasefire. We made it known in the chat and many people were on board with it, deciding that this armistice should be held on the beach (This didn't seem like a great idea to me at the time). Players started heading down to the beach early and for a few minutes it was amazing. When editing the video I cut out most of the in between, only showing the beginning and end. But hey, against all odds, we did it, and while short it was the coolest experience in Battlefield I had ever had."